BY JANE PRENDERGAST
The Cincinnati Enquirer
LEXINGTON,Ky. -- From the minute the 68-year-old diabetic man was wheeled into the Kenton County Jail that first night last June, his cellmates knew something was wrong.
He was disoriented and couldn't control his bowels.
They learned two weeks later that James Franklin of Covington died in a basement isolation cell.
That's when the other inmates decided Mr. Franklin's family needed to know what happened. Seven of them wrote letters describing what they thought was improper care for the insulin-dependent diabetic. The letters were smuggled out by a jail employee.
"When we found out he died, I think everyone in that cell cried," said Michael LaBordeaux, one of the inmates. "He couldn't fend for himself. He didn't have to die like that."
Mr. Franklin's death this summer prompted a $50 million federal lawsuit against the jail by the family and has become a rallying point for top county officials who think the jail is poorly run. Mr. LaBordeaux's recollections contradict the jail's claims that Mr. Franklin was alert and apparently healthy when he first entered the facility. He had been arrested for shooting at a police officer. No one was injured.
The inmate said he distinctly remembers thinking Mr. Franklin belonged somewhere else, such as in a hospital.
"He was in a pretty bad condition. We just had compassion for him," he said. "We just thought, "Why is this old, sick man in here?' "
Mr. LaBordeaux, 39, of Covington, now is in the Blackburn Correctional Complex in Lexington, where he is serving a 13-year sentence for selling cocaine. He spent 11 months in the jail in Covington while waiting for the state to move him to a prison. He agreed to an interview, he said Tuesday, because he wants Mr. Franklin's children to know what happened to their father.
"I want his family to know I send my sympathy to them," Mr. LaBordeaux said. "He could have been my father. That's how I think about it."
Scott Greenwood, attorney for Mr. Franklin's family, said the inmates' letters boost his belief Mr. Franklin never should have been taken to the facility, much less left there. He has not yet released the letters, and is trying to protect the identity of the letter smuggler, for fear the employee will be fired.
"What I read when I read these letters is distress and anger about how the system dealt with an obviously sick man," he said. "If they all knew (the inmates), why didn't anybody in the jail know that?"
Jailer Don Younger is saying little now about Mr. Franklin's death, citing the pending lawsuit. He continues to reject requests by Judge-executive Rodney "Biz" Cain and Police Chief Mike Browning that he hire someone to help him run the jail.
Mr. Younger, who is running for re-election, says he can handle the job fine by himself. He says most of the jail's problems can be blamed on overcrowding, which he says he can do little about, and on difficulties in getting and keeping good help.
Mr. Franklin died June 26 by himself in a basement cell. He was naked, lying on a mat on the concrete floor in his own waste next to a half-eaten orange and a lunchmeat sandwich.
An autopsy report, which some officials claim is flawed, showed his glucose level was virtually non-existent. That would indicate, diabetes experts have said, that he either got too much insulin or did not eat properly.
Mr. Younger said Mr. Franklin was placed in the isolation cell so he could get better medical attention. But Mr. LaBordeaux said he would have been better off with other inmates, who could have kept taking care of him as the ones in his initial cell did the first night. He said the cell where Mr. Franklin died, cell #058, was referred to as The Hole.
"We just knew he was gonna have a hard time when we seen him," Mr. LaBordeaux said. "He had no business being there. If you get sick in jail, you better have a good buddy to take care of you.
"You see a person who can't hold his bowels, can't stand up very well by himself -- it don't take a rocket scientist to know he should've been in the hospital."
The one night Mr. Franklin stayed in the cell with other inmates, Mr. LaBordeaux said guards left their TV on all night as a reward for them taking care of him. One deputy, he said, specifically told the inmates Mr. Franklin was being put there because guards knew the other men would take care of him.
"There's a lot of compassion," Mr. LaBordeaux said. "Everyone in jail's not really like people think."
